Road Trouble
Portland,Or – The Utah Jazz ended a season-high four-game losing streak with an authoritative victory their last time out, showing signs of re-establishing their home-court dominance.
Winning outside of Salt Lake City, however, has been another story.
Oddsmakers from online sports book Sportsbook.com have made the Blazers -9 point spread favorites for Wednesday’s game against the Jazz. Current NBA Public Betting Information shows that 64% of more than 214 bets for this game have been placed on the Blazers -9.
The Jazz will bring their woeful road record to Portland on Saturday night, where they’ll face a Trail Blazers team that’s looking for a fourth consecutive double-digit victory.
Utah (26-21) had the NBA’s top home record last season, going 37-4 on its way to winning the Northwest Division. Though the Jazz aren’t the nearly invincible club at EnergySolutions Arena that they were then, they took a seven-game winning streak into a meeting with Cleveland last Saturday.
But they dropped that game and lost again at home to San Antonio three days later, part of a four-game skid overall that was their longest in more than a year. The Jazz have been dreadful on the road, going 8-15 and losing eight of their last nine by an average of 9.0 points.
In danger of falling even farther behind division-leading Denver on Friday, Utah resurrected its home-court advantage for at least one night. The Jazz throttled Oklahoma City 110-90 behind 24 points and 12 assists from Deron Williams.
"We’re a good team when we pass the ball, share it and make extra passes," Williams said. "That’s what happened tonight."
Williams was left off the Western Conference All-Star roster last season after averaging 19.1 points and 9.7 assists while shooting 51.5 percent in the season’s first half, and a decline in his scoring (17.1 ppg) and shooting percentage (44.5) kept him off the roster again when the team’s reserves were announced Thursday.
"It’s tough but I wasn’t really worried about it. I could use the rest and get off my feet and relax,” Williams said.
Yet while the Jazz continue to struggle with injuries – Carlos Boozer has been out since November and Andrei Kirilenko underwent ankle surgery on Friday – Williams is stepping up, averaging 22.9 points and 11.1 assists in his last 10 games.
With Kirilenko expected to miss three-to-four additional weeks, though, the Jazz need more consistency from Mehmet Okur. The center leads Utah with 17.3 ppg, but averaged 11.5 on 28.0 percent shooting during the four-game losing streak.
Okur did have his second straight 20-point game in the win over the Thunder, but he’ll be in for a big test against Greg Oden and the front line of Portland (28-17).
The top pick of the 2007 draft struggled to get acclimated to the pace of the NBA after missing all of 2007-08 because of knee surgery, but he’s come on lately. Oden is averaging 16.4 points and 11.4 rebounds in his last five games.
Oden had 14 points and 14 boards Wednesday in an 88-74 win over Charlotte, the Blazers’ third in a row by at least 13 points.
"Greg Oden is starting to get comfortable in the post," coach Nate McMillan said. "He’s playing smarter, he’s making good decisions. He’s been able to establish that low-post presence we have needed."
Okur has been successful in both games against visiting Portland this season. He scored 22 points in Utah’s 103-96 win on Nov. 5 with Oden out due to injury, then had 27 points and 10 boards in a 97-88 victory on Dec. 11 with Oden in the lineup.
The Jazz, though, will need to do a better job defending LaMarcus Aldridge. The third-year forward, who’s averaging 19.6 points over his last seven games, has put up 24.0 ppg in his past four contests against Utah – including a career-high 36 on Dec. 31, 2007.
The Jazz have lost four straight at the Rose Garden.
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Posted: 1/31/09 2:35AM ET